God Doesn't Want Robots

The first experience I can recall where I thought about robots was at my very first full time job after college graduation. I worked for an automotive company and they hired me to work in a manufacturing plant, which was completely in line with my educational concentration in the field of manufacturing. It was on that production floor that I was introduced to the future of our national workforce. 

Automation has proven valuable in a capitalist society. The driving force behind automation is “more” and “faster”. Automation is an undisputed option in many facets of society except in our relationships, especially our relationship with God. Sure, you can get an app that encourages you to pray, but it can’t pray for you. You can download practically any version of the bible, but it can’t read it for you. You still have to read, and study the bible yourself. Oh wait... there is the audible option, but you still have to listen intently to the audio. The bottom line is robots and automation serve many purposes but they are not surrogates in our relationship with God. 

I feel the push back right here! Luke 19:40 As Jesus was coming down from the Mount of Olives riding on the colt, the whole multitude of his disciples, not just the 12, but the multitude of disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all His deeds of power. Verse 39 explains that the praise of the multitude unsettled the Pharisees. They demanded that Jesus order his disciples to stop all the praising. Jesus responded by explaining that praises would not be hindered. Praises would not be muffled. If they tried Jesus would still be praised, but rocks would do the praising and not the people. 

Was Jesus suggesting that he could automate praise by having rocks stand in as surrogates? 

No! Jesus was explaining that praises would come forth even in the absence of relationships. Everything was created by God and can offer praises but not as a stand-in or surrogates. 

Let’s be honest for a moment, anyone can praise God for all or anything He has done. Praise does not imply relationship. Praise is acknowledgement, not relationship. 

During this Labor Day weekend, I’m here to tell you that God is longing for the real you and not the robotic representation of you! Robots and automation have undisputed advantages in being faster and producing more but God looks at you not for “faster” or “more” but for paced faith. Yes, God sets the pace for our lives and since God is not in a rush or hurry, faster is a non-variable. Yes, God sets the capacity of our lives, which means the Lord desires to develop us with depth. It honestly takes more time, it’s a slower process to develop depth 

The cultural and social pressures of life are making our space, our boundaries smaller in a robotic way. Do more and do it faster. Become robotic in every aspect of your life in order to keep up with the pace of culture and social pressures. However, that subtle message would also push itself into our practices of faith if we are not careful. Why? Because robots do as programmed. Yet scripture teaches us the stark contrast in our relationship with God. 

Paul debunks the robotic approach to relationship with God. He begins by always remembering their work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness of hope in Jesus Christ. He has described a paced face that isn’t pulsing by the concepts of More and Fast, but by the spiritual fruit of faith, love and steadfast hope. 

Paul also includes the Holy Spirit’s power and conviction. For every Christian who has set their heart to be in a relationship with God, it is a well-known fact that three is absolutely nothing robotic about the Holy Spirit. He is unprogrammable by our intellect. He is unrestricted in scope, territory and systems. The Holy Spirit is an incorruptible memory bank. His storage files are tamper-proof. His system can’t be penetrated by hackers, nor compromised by spies working dark agendas. The Holy Spirit’s power never experiences outages because He is the Dunamis! Holy Spirit’s tactical operations can’t be traced or tracked because while He is exacting, He is never routine. He has no operations manual devised by societies, for He is the standard bearer. 

Robotic faith doesn’t work when seeking a relationship with God because Faster and More are not values of the Lord. Equating faith with faster answer to prayers and more possessions is simply artificial and robotic. Paul says in Verse 5, “We proved to be...” This may not fall gently on anyone with a robotic mindset but God will pace you as a proving process. Paul, Salvanus and Timothy have been paced by the Holy Spirit in their work for God, such that it had become proof of their calling. Faster and More aren’t God’s end product. God wants us to become imitators of Christ and imitators of those who have been proven through God’s process that is often much slower than we desire and more difficult than we imagined. 

Robots and automation have proven invaluable in our capitalist society. They produce More-Faster than human beings. Production equals profits in a robotic- automated system. But the Kingdom of God is a different system. Your entire relationship with God is paced with a process that includes something called persecution. God knows you will experience persecution and sometimes it can be so devastating that it can knock you off your feet. It can knock you off your stride. It can slow you down. It can even stop you, but here is what you need to be reminded today. When the Word of God is received with joy in the midst of persecution, we become productive. We become profitable in the Kingdom of God. We become mass producers of faith to all who watch our lives. To all who watch, not our more or faster, but who watch us when we are abased (less) and abound (more). For those who watch our joy in receiving the Word of God while in the midst of persecution, we become productive. We become profitable: not always in the More-Fast, but in the joy during persecution. 

I close with a message to those who thought God was looking for your faith to be robotic. That’s not what God desires. 

God wants: 

A Relationship with you 

To watch you work your faith

You to labor in love

You to be steadfast in hope

You confident that He chose you

You confident that He loves you

You to receive the Word – believe God with joy You to cooperate with the Holy Spirit 

To be proven

You to imitate Jesus Christ

You to become a Kingdom example 

God's Four Quadrant Relaunch Plan: Tool For Kingdom Cultivation is now available on Amazon. Click here to order your copy today.

Photo by Tara Winstead from Pexels